My Asia Tour 4/5 Yoyogi Concert Report (long)

[yatsuda]

Asia Tour 2008: My Concert Report
Saturday April 5th, 2008, Yoyogi, Tokyo (Tour’s kick-off concert)

My friend and I got to Yoyogi just before 3 o’clock (our train was delayed because of an accident on the railtracks at Ocha-no-Mizu). There were already a lot of people with gold bags (LOL) waiting around the concert venue. When I saw the long line leading to the concert goods stalls, I was really discouraged. I expected to wait 1 hour 1/2 like I did last year at Saitama Super Arena. However they were well organized because we waited no longer than 20 minutes!! I spent almost 20 000 yen and got the framed stamp sheet, the AYU chips, the muffler towel, the red strap, the keyring, the black hoodie, the pouch and the take-out bag. The uchiwa and t-shirts were NOT available, sadly. At another stall, lots of people were waiting in line to pre-order Mirrorcle World and get their poster and clear file.

We killed some time around Harajuku and went to line-up before the doors just before 5pm. We were supposed to get in at 5:30pm, but we were made to wait until 6pm. They were still making stage checks, apparently. I could see the staff scrambling right before the doors.

My seats were on the 2nd level (South block, F1, seats number 13-14), which meant we had NOBODY sitting in front of us. We had an excellent view of the stage as well as the whole venue. We even saw Yoshiki (X-Japan) leaving his seat because some fans had recognized him, apparently. I wonder what other celebrities were on hand for the show!

Before the concert started, the stage was very simple, pretty much the same as last year’s. There were red curtains hanging from each side of the stage. In the far back, there was an A-mark inside a pentagram (except it wasn’t upside down, like the horror movies, LOL) projected on the wall.

At about 7pm the lights dimmed and THE JUDGMENT DAY music started. We were shown a movie while the male dancers, topless and in silver pants, were waving and twirling white flags adorned with pink A-marks. On the screen, a sailboat with propellers is flying in a dark sky. Ayu’s at the wheel.

Ayu appears on stage and starts an a-capella version of TALKIN’ 2 MYSELF!!!!!!!! We get big fire explosions and the band then starts to accompany Ayu in the song. Ayu has curly long hair, and a silver costume (tank top, big belt and pants. She has an open sleeve on the right). She dances…

Ayu yells something (I didn’t make it out, but probably a greeting) and starts singing IS THIS LOVE? with the band. She looks angry and tough, she’s sooooooooooo kakkoii!!! At the end of the song, the stage’s red curtains fall leaving us with white sheets (on side and back of the stage).

There’s pink light and pink dice projected onto the white sheets while we get another movie. The music used reminds me a lot of the (m)u AT06 STEP you music, but it’s more rockish. Ayu’s dressed in a pink plaid uniform, a sleeveless white blouse with a pink plaid vest and short skirt, purple tie, black knee-high socks and pink boots. She’s ADORABLE!!! She’s having fun with her female dancers, who are dressed similar to Ayu but sport a pink afro wig (!!!). The male dancers (in pink plaid suits) all want Ayu’s attention. Gomi and Shu-ya both want to give Ayu flowers. Ayu pouts and pushes them away.

Ayu appears on stage with all the dancers singing DEPEND ON YOU. She’s adorable, blowing kisses and striking cute poses. The girls sit on pink dice as the boys fight it out among themselves. Gomi’s hilarious when he imitates Ayu’s cuteness with a toy mic!! They get pink balls and play with them until the end of the song. Ayu looks like she’s having so much fun!!

She follows with an “Iku yo!” and sings FLY HIGH!!!!!! There are hearts projected onto the white sheets, making it all cute. Ayu dances before she disappears from the stage.

In the next movie, featuring rock music, Ayu looks very glamorous in her fur collar long dark coat. But the place she’s in is dark and dirty. Two angry-looking female dancers in sparkly bikini tops, shorts and dark sunglasses seem to be tracking down Ayu. She’s hiding behind a door and is clearly trying to calm down as she hears the dancers coming close. When they go away, Ayu’s relieved. Flashback: Ayu’s being held on a Catherine wheel while the dancers seem to be torturing her. She escapes. Back to the present: Ayu rubs her wounded wrists but drops the key she used to free herself. They key falls onto a sheet on the ground, thus muffling the sound. But there’s a cat nearby and he makes a glass fall and shatter. The dancers come back for Ayu, who narrowly escapes inside an elevator. But the dancers catch up with her and put her to the wheel again. However, the dancers look like they’re crazy as they touch Ayu, who’s bathed in a white light. Ayu’s tough and strong, yeah!

Ayu, in a long black jacket and pants, gets on stage and starts singing (DON’T) LEAVE ME ALONE. The theme is the same as the movies, complete with the wheel. Four female dancers (in pink, purple, green and blue sparkly 2-piece costumes) strap her to the wheel. While Ayu sings, the wheel’s rotating!!! Once the wheel stops, the dancers get Ayu off of it and strip her of her pants… to reveal a black and red lacy bustier with shorts, black gloves and high boots. She fights with the dancers.

When DECISION starts, the male dancers (shiny pants, topless but with a chain from the neck to the pants) invade the stage. Red feathers in the back of Ayu’s costume have been added. Ayu walks on the middle stage to the round stage.

That stage rises as Ayu gets her red whip out and starts singing MY NAME’S WOMEN. She does the chair dance routine with her female dancers, much like a previous concert. When the stage comes down, Ayu loses half of her feathers!!! She does more chair dancing on the middle stage but after the guitar solo’s over, she forgets to start singing!! There’s an explosion and the while sheets fall: the set is all gold, with an A-mark in the back of the stage. And just before she disappears into the floor, Ayu loses the rest of her feathers (probably not noticeable to people sitting in the arena).

There’s a drum solo followed by another movie which features MARIONETTE – PRELUDE - . We see clocks ticking and an old mirror. Ayu’s sitting on an armchair, covered by a blanket. Her hair is very much 1920’s style, much like the Marionette PV. She picks up the (male dancer) dolls and sets them in a round box.

Ayu pops up on the round stage, surrounded by her dancers. She’s wearing a lacy white dress with a pink ribbon sash. The stage rises and turns as Ayu and her dancers dance like disolocated puppets. Ayu’s great at this!!! I don’t know how to explain this… there’s a caroussel-like gazebo that rises from the round stage… it’s quite cool. Anyway, again, after the music-only part of Marionnette, Ayu forgets to start singing! I found that her voice wavered quite a bit too.

And we get another movie!! This time Ayu switches on the rotating round box and her dolls turn and turn. A clock rings, Ayu’s eyes are white. The room she’s in looks pretty much like a doll-house would. The dancers are holding up the ceiling and looking down at her: she’s the doll inside the box!! She falls like a dislocated puppet and the dancers laugh at her. Pretty freaky!!

In the next movie, we’re shown a yellow cloudy sky and a floating stair case appears from nowhere. Stairs keep on adding to the staircase as it goes up and up. Ayu’s on top of the stairs, looking like a goddess in her simple straight white dress, white long gloves, hoop earrings and long flowy hair. Shu-ya’s (long beige over-coat, boots, beige pants) climbing those stairs—the girls in the audience scream, argh! He waits, in front of Ayu: both look sad. They hold out their arm to each other, but the stairs crack and fall apart. Shu-ya falls to the earth as Ayu cries.

While Ayu is still on screen, crying on her knees, Shu-ya’s dancing, seemingly searching for Ayu. When he leaves the stage, Ayu, with a tiara, in a sparkly white dress, with a neckline made to look like a cross, revealing bare shoulders (and revealing a TATTOO?!?!?! Her hair was hiding the right side of the tattoo. On the right there’s an A-mark inside a heart, with the 10th logo grown), starts singing HANABI while Shu-ya’s on screen again. When they’re both on the stage, they hold out their hands to each other, but Ayu disappears.

Two curtains (?) come down from the ceiling… and the “tissue” dance (the one that the dancers didn’t get to make at last year’s concert because of lack of practice!!!) started!! It was an awesome performance!!! Ayu starts singing END ROLL while a 3rd dancer comes down from a “tissue”, doing free falls. After Ayu disappears from the stage, the dance continues.

Then there’s a big change in the music tempo (it sounds very rockish, a bit like one of the (m)u interludes. The male dancers, in shiny high waisted pants, come out holding flashlights. Shu-ya jumps out of the stage and dances. There’s purple light and Ayu starts singing SURREAL. She’s wearing a gold corset, short skirt, long boots and a beanie on the left side of her head. On her corset, there’s a patch with the 10th anniversary A-mark… looks like an army patch or something, LOL! Just before singing “la la la lai” she changes to EVOLUTION and moves about the stage doing the hand gestures with the fans. Then she switches back to SURREAL. Ayu’s enjoying herself, it seems. She’s smiling so much!!!
On to the last movie: An anchor is risen: the same sailboat as the beginning brings down its 4 A-mark sails, Ayu climbs in and starts flying in the dark night. The music reminds me of black and white movies!!!

A white sheet with a pink A-mark drops down from the ceiling… and comes completely down to reveal… THE SAILBOAT FROM THE MOVIE, complete with rotating propellers!! It’s SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool and unexpected!!! The crowd actually gasped and freaked out!! Ayu’s at the wheel as she sings MIRRORCLE WORLD. Ayu’s wearing a gold sparkly long coat over the previous costume. Dancers dance, and the sailboat rotates. Kyaaaa, Ayu’s so kick-arse!! She yells Arigatou Gozaimashita, then the band members go into solos. She says thank you and they all leave the stage.

Just before the encore starts, we get the A-mark dance!! Yeeeaaaaahh!! Here are the different versions:
1. Gold A-mark “clapping” hands
2. A pink A-mark playing golf! It’s about to do a hole-in-one when a mole comes out of the earth and knocks out the ball. The A-mark is exasperated.
3. Hanami version!! The A-mark is holding sake and o-dango. The gold A-mark then goes white with a pink sakura-flower pattern.
4. Pink A-mark with a pink guitar and heart-shaped amp.
5. Gold A-mark with a wig… more exactly a Yocchan wig!!!! LOL!!!
6. Another wig: Ikko’s どんだけえ～！
7. A-mark does the Kojima Toshio routine (sonna no kankeinai!)
8. 2 small pink A-marks dance while all her release dates are being shown.
9. “あと3日” 3 days left!! (before her 10th anniversary)
10. A-mark with the uchiwa

The stage lights up. Ayu’s wearing jeans, high-tops and the white version of her tour t-shirt, with the Swarwovsky crystals in the front and back (so cute!). She has a black beret on and the black towel hanging from her jeans. Her hair is in a low long pony-tail. She starts talking about the start of the tour, but halfway through her monologue, she says she’s having problems with her left ear-monitor. She lets Yocchan talk: “konban-nya”, LOL! Ayu says they’re going to sing 2 ballads. Just as she’s going to introduce the first, the music for DEAREST starts. Ayu lifts her hand so the music can stop. She fakes getting angry with her band members: you gave away the song before I introduced it!! Let’s do things right, listen to me when I’m talking.” She does the intro again and sings DEAREST, perfectly. Her left ear-moni pops out of her ear again!

On VOYAGE, her voice is just as excellent. She waves her hands, moves her body a bit, very cute. Yocchan’s using an acoustic guitar, which makes for a very pretty song.

Yocchan does more of the MC. He welcomes us to this year’s Asia tour, then wants to let Ayu talk, but she’s about to drink water. She says she’s super thirsty but just hasn’t found the right time to drink!! When she tried to drink, earlier, when the stage was still dark, she noticed that the first row concert-gowers had probably noticed her! So she tells Yocchan to keep on talking while she drinks… She downs the whole bottle (and it’s big) in one shot… while doing the peace sign, LOL! Yocchan says that we should do the “ask Ayu questions” corner again this year. And he finishes by saying that he hopes we enjoy this year’s tour.

Ayu calls one of her dancers, Zin, on the stage. He has to teach us some hand gestures for the last song. He’s super cute because he doesn’t exactly know how to go about it. He’s too fast, so Ayu laughs at him and tells him to do it again and again, more slowly. The fans also find him too fast, so he takes a pitiful look and says “what shall I do”!! We start practicing with Zin. Ayu also takes part, but she says she feels more like an airline stewardess… and laughs.

A lighted 10th Anniversary A-mark lights up in the back of the stage as Ayu starts INDEPENDENT… except she completely forgets the whole 1st part!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She then yells “gomen”! But we forgive her, of course!! She’s too cute!!! She goes to the stage in the middle, waves. Then we sing BOYS AND GIRLS with her. The set is lighted up in rainbow colours, cool!!

Ayu does the band intro and goes with the last song, MY ALL. Ayu’s crying through the whole song as we do the hand gestures. She introduces her dancers, cries some more, then POW! Gold streamers and confetti (I didn’t get any streamers this year, I was too far, BOO!).

With WHO… in the background, Ayu bowns and thanks us: arigatou gozaimasu heard throughout the silent arena.

The concert is over at a little after 9pm. Getting out is absolutely crazy, there are just soooo many people!!! People are still lining up to buy goods and pre-order CDs. My friend and I walk to Harajuku Station because we’re meeting an AHS member there (she’ll be going to the show on the 8th). We had something to eat at Shinjuku station before parting ways, just before 11pm. I got home at 1am, talked with my husband (who’d been away for a week on business) and went to bed at 2am. My daughters wake me up at 6am, so I didn’t think it was wise to stay up and write this report. So that’s why I’m so late. Sorry!!

This concert was AWESOME!! It’s better than I thought it would be. I expected Ayu to sing lots of old fan-favourite songs, but she didn’t!! Hearing Is this LOVE? or Hanabi again was just excellent!! My personal highlights:
Ayu being a tough chick, boy she looks good!!
The tissue dance, which the dancers did really well!! Great entertainment!! Plus with what we know about how much they practiced (AT07 DVD), it was even more meaningful.
The variety of the songs performed. Plus the costumes were really nice, although not as colourful as last year’s.
The actual sailboat. She took me by surprise, kyaaa!! I expected the red dress from the Mirrorcle World PV!!

I think I’ll be going to the Yokohama Arena show as well in June (I have tickets), just to see if anything’s changed, or gotten better. I already can’t wait!!
Thanks for reading!!

[truehappiness]

Thank you so much! I'm gonna read this a few times. DD~

The interlude videos sound so exciting! Thanks again for your review :]

Could I post it in the initial thread?

[Hanabi_surreal]

thanks for the complete report!!

I really like too ser her forgeting her lyrics, is so cute when she make that XD
well it looks like a very impresive show...

thank you again! ^^

[Ani_C]

Sounds amazing!~ >w<

[hiroshi_ben]

thanks for the report!!!im glad that so many people can understand and forgive her even she forgets her lyrics haha~

anyway do u happened to see any gyaruo in this concert?and someone mentioned namie and the vocalist of mr. children were there too...haha

[AyUmIXx]

wow.........
thanks for the whole report..
i think i'm going to really love this AT08!!
it makes me want to go to her ASIA TOUR once again!!!
i really want to go this time!!!!
i hope i'll get the chance..
and i hope that the ASIA TOUR schedules will be announced real soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway, i cried when i read the part of MY ALL performance..she cried again T_____T

[Ayumiko]

omg...thank you soooo much for the report!!!!! So the ship in the clips is suppose to be flown in the sky??

[taskinillusion]

Thank you so much for posting all of that!!! I'm glad they got to do the acrobat cloth thing that they couldn't do last year! Sounds like a marvelous time! I wonder why Ayu kept forgetting when to start singing and spacing on her lyrics? She was probably just overwhelmed by the start of her new tour. It'll be interesting to see if anything changes. The flying ship sounds crazy!!

[Bigtop]

That's kind of interesting...

[milky_way]

Sounds exciting!! Glad you had fun *is jealous*

[freedreamer]

From what you say, i think the biggest highlights are her "short movies" and the Ship...HAHA

Can you give more insight on her vocals?..coz thats wad im worried about...
but the whole Story thing really seems amazing...i just hope she performed well...hehe

[truehappiness]

Well, yatsuda pointed Ayu's voice out several times, saying it was fantastic.. :]

[freedreamer]

^if thats the case, then IM HAPPY FOR HER
but acctually...i dont see much on yatsuda commenting on her vocals...other than in Marionette (where she "wavered" a bit)...and Voyage, which was fantastic

and i wonder how many people are gonna complain that:
-she forgot her lyrics for an anniversary (though, for me, i dont mind...she is prolyl too hyped)
-she reuses the feather's for my names WOMEN (which i think, that, feathers are truly the Signature thing of that song already)
-Shuya

[truehappiness]

I'm happy as well!

Ayu overcame her hearing problem! :]

[apple-pi]

WOW! Thank you so much, it seems awesome! Except for forgetting the Marionette lyrics i_i I don't mind it so much when she forgets her lyrics, but the Marionette performance sounds so awesome that it would be SUPERB if it could have been perfect. But oh well!
Anyway. Can't wait to see that boat!! IT'S A FLYING BOAT!!!

[majrakun]

Wow~ I want to cry just reading this report! I especially want to see the Marionette performance! Now I can't wait for the DVD to come out! Which I assume would take ANOTHER year. Why can't they at least release a TV version like previous ATs? Aaayuuuu~ T_T

Is it possible for anyone to release pictures of the concert?

hahahahaha Shu-ya overload OMG And wow, the male dancers are getting more and moooore topless! I'm glad he, Zin and Gomi are still there! Are the other current dancers still there? And did she get new dancers for this AT?

[polka-dot-jewel]

Yay!!! Even though I'm slowly growing to accept the setlist, the concert itself sounds AMAZING!!! And I'm so happy they got to do the "tissue" dance; I absolutely cannot WAIT to see it~! I cannot wait to see this concert! Only two and a half months...!!!!! ^^

Thanks for the report!! =D

[alternarist]

there are so many movies!! i love it!!!

and i have seen the video of the stage.. it's so huge.....................................

[Suteisi]

Thank you so much for all the details!!

I can't believe you remembered everything so well! +_+!! I would have been so excited and felt like it all went so fast, I probably would have forgotten a lot of the things you mentionned~

And I'm glad to see you really liked it ^______^b

Thanks so much again~

[Queen Bee]

I can't wait to see the concert! I'm so jealous right now!